106 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



year; but they cannot materially affect the course of vegetation. At 

 the Kingsmill Group, situated directly under the equator, the natives 

 reckon by periods of ten months, a number evidently adopted for con- 

 venience of counting, and with no reference whatever to any natural 

 seasons. The names of the Rotuman months are 



Oi-papa, March (and September). 



Tqftafi, April (and October). 



Hdua, May, &c. 



Kesepi, June. 



Fdsoyhdu, July. 



AQapudya August. 



AUSTRALIA. 



This land, of which we know not whether the proper designation 

 be an island or a continent, is known as a region of singularities. Not 

 the least of these are the combinations of what, judging from precon- 

 ceived ideas, may well be termed contrarieties, in the physical traits, 

 moral qualities, customs, and language of the aborigines. Thus they 

 have, at once, the dusky hue and elongated visage of the negro, with 

 the fine, straight hair of the European ; they are excessively super- 

 stitious and yet almost devoid of religious (or devotional) feelings; 

 with the strongest attachment to their native district, they can rarely 

 be brought to spend more than three days in one spot ; and though 

 their idiom abounds in complex inflections, like those of the American 

 Indians, it has less facility of composition than the English. During 

 our stay in New South Wales, we had good opportunities for ac- 

 quiring information concerning this singular variety of the human 

 species. At Sydney, Hunter's River, and Wellington Valley, we 

 found natives from all parts of the colony, from Moreton Bay on the 

 north, to the Muruya River on the south, and from the coast to a 

 distance of three hundred miles into the interior. The result of our 

 examination, and of the comparison of dialects, was a conviction that 

 all the natives of that part of New Holland were of one stock. 

 Further comparisons induce us to extend this remark to the entire 

 continent, though, before coming to any positive conclusion on the 

 subject, it will be necessary to possess some more accurate knowledge 

 than we now have, of the dialects spoken in Northern Australia, more 

 especially of their grammatical characteristics. 



